You can see our full review of how Facebook Home works on the HTC First here.

Home is Facebook’s strongest swing yet at mobile, and points to the company’s ambition to be a platform for all of your communications, ever present, no matter what else you are doing: “the next version of Facebook,” in the words of CEO Mark Zuckerberg. (Other moves, such as this quiet acquisition of stealth startup Osmeta, point to how this may extend beyond just Android, too.)

This means that, while Home is still limited in how many people can use it — just the HTC First, along with four other devices (albeit including two handsets from the world’s biggest smartphone maker, Samsung) — and is limited in its functionality (no ads… yet), if things go to plan for Facebook, this is just the beginning.

In that vein, we’ll have to see what more Facebook does to promote the new app to drum up usage, and interest, going forward. We’ve already seen a commercial, along with messaging in several of its ad formats like suggested posts and log-out screen ads. It’s likely that Facebook will place announcements on streams to also signal availability, perhaps targeting users of those four Android devices specifically, or perhaps targeting all of its Android users. Facebook’s own Mobile page has some 6.1 million likes.

In the meantime, a groan-inducing sidenote and PSA. Hoping to profit from people eager to be the first to get Facebook’s new Android launcher, one company calling itself “Facebook Inc” also launched “Facebook Home” today. (I wrote to Facebook about this in the morning; the app now appears to have been taken down.)

Complete with copy-pastes of Facebook’s own marketing materials, this was a paid app — £0.65 in the UK — and once downloaded simply takes you to another app made by the same developer, “Friends Planet for Facebook.” (I do hope Google Play refunds the money I paid so that I could see what the app actually does.) Perhaps Facebook’s next step with Home should be developing an app store with tighter controls against counterfeits like this.

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OverviewFacebook is an online social networking service that allows its users to connect with friends and family as well as make new connections. It provides its users with the ability to create a profile, update information, add images, send friend requests, and accept requests from other users. Its features include status update, photo tagging and sharing, and more.
Facebook’s profile structure includes …

OverviewHTC Corp is engaged in the design, development, and manufacture of smartphones and tablets in Taiwan.
The company offers PDA phones and smartphones for mobile operators and distributors in Europe, the United States, and Asia. These machines are available as HTC devices and as products individually customized for operators and device partners. The company provides its own HTC self-branded products …

OverviewAT&T is a telecommunications company that provides wireless communications, local exchange, and long-distance services for consumers and businesses in the United States and internationally.
The company offers its services in two segments: wireless and wireline. Its wireless segment offers various wireless voice, data, text, and other services. This segment sells various handsets, wirelessly-enabled …